A centre-right alliance was on course to win Sweden's parliamentary election on Sunday, ending 12 years of Social Democrat rule with pledges to cut taxes and trim the welfare state, television exit polls showed, according to Reuters. An exit poll by national public broadcaster SVT estimated the four-party alliance led by Moderate Party leader Fredrik Reinfeldt won 49.7 percent of votes, with 45.6 percent going to a bloc led by Prime Minister Goran Persson's Social Democrats. TV4 channel projections put the centre-right alliance on 48.6 percent and Social Democrats' bloc on 46.7 percent. The centre-right alliance has vowed to trim but not radically change the welfare system by cutting taxes and costly benefits after signs of voter fatigue with the Social Democrats, in power since 1994 and for six of the last seven decades.
